Thursday, February 22, 2007

Year of the Golden Pig - CNY 2007

Jin and I always look forward to CNY cos that means good food and of course, the yearly catching up with relatives who we meet only once a year :). Noticed how good food came before relatives? Well, it is the YEAR of the PIG so cannot blame me for going along with the piggy in me right? heehee

CNY in Penang

The bummer thing about having to go back to Penang during CNY is that all the yummy places are usually closed :(..thankfully there's always our favourite Apom Manis aunty at Pulau Tikus. No visit to Penang is complete without a breakfast stop to take-away at least 10 pieces of this yummy apom (a sweet pancake made from slighty fermented rice flour and egg ; cooked over low heat in an earthen pot with a lid it gives off absolutely delightful scents). We did this on both mornings 2 days we were there and I am still craving for more!

After a full tummy filled with apom, next stop was the cendol stall on Penang Road. This stall is soo popular that finding a parking space nearby is always a challenge..I always feel bad for the cendol stall next to this famous one cos one will have a long queue and the other would be "business-less". Personally, the cendol in Melaka still rocks but with 30 over degrees of heat in Penang, an ice cold bowl of cendol seems heaven sent :)

Finally, we always grab a nice green pandan coconut at Lorong Selamat before boarding our flight to KL. Part of the fun of drinking this is watching the coconut uncle skillfully chop the coconut..it's pure entertainment by itself :).

CNY in KL

1st stop after arriving into KL was to check our apartment..we just got the keys and planning to sell it since we don't want to go through the hassle of renting it out..I love it! it's airy and big , finishing not exactly up to Singaporean standards but acceptable and the views are superb. Here's what we get to see (Damansara/PJ, golf course and the Petronas Twin Towers in the distance):

The family dinner this year was hosted at Aunty Lai Ming's house..finally, after 3 months of not being back in KL, we got our fill of good food. Slide show shows all the relatives from mom's side of the house. Uncle Kam Yoon and family came back from UK for the occassion and it was just fabulous to see everyone again after so long.

On the 2nd day of CNY, we woke up at 7am to hit the greens at mom's club for my first ever game of golf..soo exciting! The four of us (Aunty Yap, mom, jin and myself) decided to skip the buggy to walk off all the CNY calories. Weather was perfect - cloudy and cool. Really enjoyed myself despite getting "scolded" by mom half the time for not knowing the rules of the game and hitting badly :p

Then it was a quick rush to grandparents house to savour the traditional noodles with soup. After a bowl (jin had 2!), we rushed over to Ku Che's house for lunch. We hung out for 4 hours and played some mahjong where I lost .40 cents to Jin..bummer :p. Here are some shots taken at this lunch.

2nd day dinner was a reunion dinner with close friends - Lb and family, Michelle and family, liza, keat, teon and cheryl. We choose this restaurant called Delicious at Bangsar Village One. (they hv another outlet in 1 Utama). We tried their selection of pastas and salads and it was top notch..especially considering everything was half price in SGD :). I really enjoyed the duck confit angelhair pasta..yummy! LB's kid, Amberlyn decided to start liking her aunty Cindy (always kena reject in previous visits!) and was really accommodative to smile and do her 'pocky' face for the camera :). Here's the group at Delicious :

Day 3 morning saw us up and early again at the 1 Utama public golf course. This time around, our buddies were Teon and Keat. Only RM50 for a game with buggy included..talk about decently cheap..and on a public holiday too! I always wanted to drive a buggy and I think everyone secretly learns to play golf just for the chance to drive the golf buggy..haha ;). Weather was too hot so I only played 5 holes and watched the guys finish the 9. They lost soo many balls, I lost count (I did not lose any!! Could it be bcos my shots were all within walking distance? :p) The funny thing was, halfway through the course, an Indian uncle popped his head up from over the bushes and offered to sell us a packet of 20 used balls for RM10. How to resist? After that, the guys got to lose all the balls they wanted to as we had many spare balls left to play with :p

After golf - we rushed to Lin's place for her mom's yummy curry chicken and choc chip cookies. Can't resist and must have popped in like 5 cookies at a go. Caught up with Mei Leng and Karen one last round before seeing them again like don't know when! We left Lin's place in search of a cendol man at Taman Bahagia where Jin had his fill of ice cold cendol. Then it was off to Angie's place to meet up with Mun and her..soo good to see them again after more than a year. Angie looking really good as usual even though she's 8 months pregnant. Dinner that night before we had to leave for Spore was at mom's friend - Aunty Grace's house where she cooked an excellent organic meal. We had organic yue sang followed by kim chi, fish and beef dishes. Ended the meal with home made organic ice cream with a dash of cherry sauce. Should have taken more days off for CNY back in Msia :(....blah to work :p